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Dr. Angelo Chatmon

You bring human beings to the dust by saying, ‘Return, children of Adam.’ A thousand years are to you like a yesterday wich has passed, like a watch of the night. Psalm 90:3,4

The span of our life is seventy years, eighty for those who are strong, but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone. Psalm 90:10

Teach us to count up the days that are ours, and we shall come to the heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

Colors, Cloud, and Field

We cannot even begin to compare our temporary existence to the eternality of God. Yet, we are often foolish enough to try. We try to label him as the God of a nation, or a race. This psalm of Moses brings us to a people who had not yet claimed a territory and had just been delivered from being the lowest of the earth. The writer cannot boast in national borders nor ethnic prowess. He begins the poem with these words, Lord, you have been our refuge from age to age. This was a people of great promise. Other nations have heard of them and lost heart because of their triumphs. And yet the writer gives all reverent reverence to God claiming nothing for the people. That temporal humanity is completely reliant on God’s eternal presence. What then is a nation? A set of borders that will rise and fall in the sands of time. What is a race? A collection of people who can ruled and be ruled in the shifting winds. Only one is eternal. Not our great numbers of limited ages. But, he who is ageless and precedes and succeeds our existence. I am in debt to Dr. Angelo Chatmon, Dean of the Chapel at Virginia Union University, for making this point clear.